Starting October 21, Salgado Filho International Airport in Porto Alegre (RS) will once again have commercial flights. The sale of airline tickets is authorized starting this Friday (9).
According to the federal government, the resumption will occur with 128 daily flights (landings and takeoffs), equivalent to more than 3,000 flights per month. Aircraft will operate from 8 am to 10 pm.
The air terminal was closed on May 3 due to flooding in the state.
The announcement of the resumption of operations was released by ministers Silvio Costa Filho (Ports and Airports) and Paulo Pimenta (Secretariat for Support for the Reconstruction of Rio Grande do Sul), this Thursday (8).
“This will accelerate the recovery of the state’s economy,” said Costa Filho. The forecast, from concessionaire Fraport, is that the airport will be able to operate at 100% of its capacity from December 16.
“Before the flood, we had around 1,300 weekly flights. We will resume operations with around 70% of the normal number we had,” said Pimenta.
The government reported that, in addition to the landing and take-off runway, taxiways and aircraft apron are included in the airport rehabilitation process. After the terminal cleaning phase, the airport team will work until October to recover the areas necessary for the resumption of the affected landing and take-off operations.
The recovery includes the landing and take-off runway, which is 1,300 meters long in total (equivalent to 60,000 square meters), in addition to 20,000 square meters of the patio where the aircraft are parked.
In October, work will take place in areas where there is no aircraft movement. In this phase, the recovery of 1,200 square meters of extension (equivalent to 53,000 square meters) is planned.
Other planned actions include preparing the pavement for resurfacing or reconstruction with flexible pavement, depending on the location. This will occur so that, in December, the complete recovery of the 3,200 meters of runway, in addition to the taxiways and apron, which are essential for the airport to be able to resume full operations, can be completed.
